This invention relates to apparatus for grooming snow on ski slopes. In recent years, the skiing industry has grown significantly larger due to the seemingly ever-increasing numbers of people who have the interest, time, and money to participate in such sport. To satisfy this demand, it has become customary to groom the snow ski slopes in a manner to improve skiing conditions.
Freshly fallen snow does not usually provide ideal skiing conditions for most skiers. Often such new fallen snow is too soft and requires packing. In other instances, newly fallen snow may result in many drifts that interfere with skiing, thus requiring leveling; or conditions may be such that there has been formed a hard surface crust that requires breaking. Similarly, after large numbers of people have skied on a slope, the snow may have become too packed in some areas or may have become so uneven as to make skiing difficult. Also, a skiing surface will often melt on the surface during the day and then freeze at night, which is likely to result in a surface condition that is undesirably crusty. After soft snow has been packed, drifted snow has been dispersed, or crusted snow has been broken up, it is desirable that the resulting surface be relatively uniformly groomed so as to enhance skiing conditions.
Typically, the apparatus that has been developed for grooming the snow includes a tractor-like vehicle having wide, flat, track-like surfaces that enable the vehicle to traverse the ski slopes. On the front of such vehicle is usually positioned a blade for scraping or pushing snow. On the rear of the vehicle is usually provided a packer bar assembly for packing, leveling, and combing the snow so as to leave a uniform, slightly grooved surface. Prior packer bar assemblies typically include a series of metal blades or blade segments that are positioned together in side by side, edge to edge relation to provide a blade or blade assembly of a desired width. The lower portions of the blade engaging the snow are usually provided with ridges or comb-like elements to provide the desired finished surface. Typically, the blade assembly is mounted so that it may be raised or lowered by suitable means, such as hydraulic rams, to vary the pressure on the snow or the extent to which the blade cuts into the snow. Normally, the blade is mounted at an angle with respect to the snow surface, and in some arrangements, the angle can be varied to improve the grooming operation. While this type of packer bar apparatus has been very beneficial for improving the condition of the snow skiing surfaces, it has a number of shortcomings.
It is difficult for an operator to determine the desired downward setting or angle setting of the blade assembly. This is so even with a ski slope having a fairly uniform condition. However, this problem is compounded with a typical ski slope condition wherein the angle and position of the blade should preferably be continuously adjusted. Moreover, even with a single pass of the grooming apparatus, certain portions of the terrain should preferably be treated differently than with others, but this is difficult or impossible to do with a relatively wide, rigid blade assembly. As a result of these difficulties, operators frequently compromise by setting the blade assembly at a position which hopefully will provide acceptable results, without much adjustment being made during operation.
The metal blade assembly is also relatively heavy, and consequently difficult for personnel to handle when replacing blade segments. The weight translates into increased fuel costs in moving the assembly during the grooming operations. The blade assemblies are also subject to corrosion and are relatively expensive.
Some attempts have been made to improve the snow grooming apparatus by utilizing somewhat flexible, comb-like elements attached to the lower ends of metal blade assemblies. However, a need still exists for further improvements in the apparatus available for grooming snow.